Clowns – Endless

Where is the line in the sand drawn between punk and rock? I have no idea, but if first impressions are anything to go by then the album cover for Endless indicates that Clowns have crossed it. The depiction of a demon playing a keytar with the Police pointlessly firing at it certainly hints at album covers by the likes of Anthrax and Exodus. Anyone who’s watched enough horror movies (and I certainly have) knows that guns don’t work on demons, and given the demon is playing a keytar the spirit of 80’s hair metal raises it’s poodle permed head. This is too much to take and my imagination is clearly running wild, or free if you want to crowbar an 80’s metal reference in there. With horrible flashbacks to the worst excesses of late 80’s metal running through my mind, that are especially vivid as the basement alternative club I haunted in this era had a hair metal club above it, I hit play to cast out the demons.

Clowns are not the first Aussie punk band to cross the metaphorical line in the sand, Frenzal Rhomb dealt us a similar misdirection with the excellent The Cup Of Pestilence album, and like their fellow countrymen and label mates this is thankfully not a throwback to the days of spandex and Bon Jovi, although the overblown opening instrumental title track does raise concerns that this might be the case. Thankfully the opening scream of Formaldehyde does, at least partially, banish this nightmare and might answer the question of where the line is drawn between rock and metal, quite possibly Endless is that line. Metal excesses ricochet off each other throughout Endless and meld with punk and alternative rock to create a full blooded beast of an album. What number this beast is isn’t stated, but it’s quite possibly 665, the beast’s neighbour, as this is neither metal or punk, it’s a rare true hybrid.

As much as it might seem that I dislike metal this is not the case, like the majority of people reading this I doubt there is anyone who solely listens to punk, or that there is anyone who can actually define what punk is given the endless mutations and permutations that have sprung up since the torch was lit in the mid 70s. Select highlights from the metal scene do pepper my collection creating unlikely neighbours such as Iron Maiden and Iron Roses, The Meffs and Megadeth, Judas Priest and Jughead’s Revenge and umlaut enthusiasts The Mörons and Motörhead, this album is in that spirit. The days when rival alternative factions were at war have thankfully long since been despatched to history, this unlikely olive branch means we get albums like this. Endless possesses both a metal spirit and a punk heart, so raise your fists, circle in that pit and dust off your denim cutoff as Clowns are back with a vengeance.

Endless is now available via Fat Wreck Chords, Damaged Music and streaming platforms